Page 8 - Consider The Lillies of the Field - My Story: Jill Kemp

and cried but finally decided that wasn't working, so started down the path only
to be confronted by a monster - a huge cow! I had never seen a cow before and
my bloodcurdling screams sent the poor creature galloping off! I was so terrified
that it gave me night-mares for years! I also got my first and only hiding from my
mum for dropping a puppy!

When I was five our mother phoned and told our father to, “Come and
get the girls.” Poor Dad! There was no help for solo fathers in those
days and he took us to his brother's place. They had one child and the
family lived in a very tiny state house and the six of us (altogether)
squeezed in where we could. Our 6-foot tall father slept on a small
wooden couch that gave extra seating behind the dining room table in the
kitchen, my sister slept in a bed made from two armchairs pushed together
in the lounge and I was fortunate enough to have my own bed in my
cousin's room. It wasn't a very satis-factory arrangement, so my sister was
sent to stay with vari-ous relatives. She was difficult to manage, having
been ne-glected as a baby and wouldn't eat. She was very stubborn and
would clench her teeth. People just could not get her to eat and couldn't
cope with her and she was in nine homes from the time she was two
until she was five years old. She was tiny and undernourished and we used
to dress her in our dolls’ clothes.

So, my Dad went boarding and took my little sister with him. After work
each day he called in to spend a little time with me, before saying

goodbye and driving off down the road. I used to get terrible pains in my
tummy as I watched him go, and would hide in the wardrobe and cry and
smell his over-coat, I missed him so much. My daddy was going,
my mummy was gone, it was very distressing for a young child. But I had
a wonderful life with my Uncle, Auntie and cousin. It was the only stable
period I had in my childhood that would be a model of family life for
my own future marriage

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